The facilities at Camp Silver Beach were built just over five years ago, but the origin of the Four Tribes stretches back 11,000 years to the dawn of the Holocene Era. The world was dominated by the four basic elements: Fire, Water, Air and Earth. These elements waged war against one another. And when they were not at war they made backhanded, passive aggressive quips. The kind of thing that wedding guest Smokey Nelson does on a regular basis. Just see what happens if you get in front of him at the buffet.
The four Elements were just the worst.
While the Four Elements busied themselves with cruelty, a new presence emerged on the planet: The Plant Kingdom, and later, the Animal Kingdom. Plants and Animals realized that in order to grow, and to have babies, and to invent crossword puzzles and eventually to host the Super Bowl, there must be peace between the Four Elements. Therefore they chose four species -- the Osprey, the Firefly, the Blue Crab, and the Deer -- to watch over the elements, to calm them, and to represent them when conflicts arose. In return these species got special powers, luxury boxes for the Super Bowl, and stock they could resell without paying capital gains. That's the kind of sweetheart deal wedding guest Ben Berringer would trade his bonus for.
A peaceful valley, watched over by the mighty Pine.
Serenity finally came to the planet, from the smoldering fires at the Earth's core, to the warmth of its rocky surface, to the cool waves of the sea, and up, up to the swirling eddies of air in the sky. An everlasting Pax-Gaia that even wedding guest Melissa Russell-Paige could appreciate.
But there was a catch: once a year the Osprey, Firefly, Blue Crabs and the Pine (for tax purposes, the Deer decided to be known as Pine) would engage in a day of battle. This battle would satiate the violent nature of the Elements for the rest of the year. The winners would be crowned in a gilded ceremony that takes place on sacred ground...which later became the site of a French Canadian nudist colony until it was purchased by the YMCA.
Blue Crab, Osprey, Firefly and Pine compete for everlasting glory.
In honor of the noble Species of the Elements, campers at Silver Beach divide into 4 tribes, and compete in ancient rites of competition: archery, cornhole, sack races, tugs of war and maybe beer pong. It is on this hallowed ground that champions have been anointed for 10,000 years, and so it will be on May the 10th, 2014.
You will forge bonds within your tribe that are impervious to magma, and unless you're as unathletic as wedding guest Nils d'Aulaire- who once struck out at kickball- your victory will be nailed into the webpages of history.
Now... go take our Camper Quiz to find out which tribe will be yours.